AFL star Campbell Brown lifts lid on dad Mal Brown’s iconic reaction after Gold Coast Suns axing

Campbell Brown and his father Mal are two of the most colourful figures the AFL has ever seen, and the former has opened on an infamous incident that ended his 205-game career. 

The 39-year-old Hawthorn premiership player finished his career at the Gold Coast Suns, and was unceremoniously dumped after breaking then-teammate Stephen May’s jaw in a brawl outside a Los Angeles nightclub.

May required two plates to repair the break, and despite the fiery defender accepting Brown’s apology for the 2013 incident, that occurred after a preseason camp in the USA.

After a string of off and on-field controversies, the Suns had finally had enough, and sacked the fiery utility, ending his career.

But it was an incident involving his father that has gone down in footy folklore, and many will remember it more than the brawl itself.  

Campbell Brown has lifted the lid on the event that ended his footy career – and the iconic reaction of his father, Mal

It didn’t take long for footage of the brawl to land Down Under, and given Brown’s father Mal was a cult figure himself, after a WAFL Hall of Fame career and stint at Richmond, which would see him front tribunals as often as he played games; it was inevitable he would become a target for the media.

Brown, fearing for his AFL career, called his father to describe what had happened, and told him to make no comment to the media – something his colourful dad happily obliged.

Until he snapped, in what is now an iconic footy spray.

Brown lifted the lid on the moment, detailing exactly how the moment – that went viral around the world – unfolded. 

‘Three or four days went by and what the press were reporting about the incident was just so far off the mark. They were just saying all sorts of ***t which just wasn’t accurate. The old man was just on a slow burn a little bit. He’s (Mal) just getting a bit angrier and a bit angrier each day,’ he told the Ausmerican Aces podcast. 

The slow burn continued to build, before it exploded right in front of television cameras.  

Cult hero Mal Brown was a target for reporters once details of his son’s bar fight leaked – and he couldn’t help but respond – eventually

‘The Suns had never come out and clarified some of the misinformation which might have potentially helped,’ Brown said.  

‘I reckon the story broke on a Thursday and I reckon it got to the Monday, so four days have gone past and Mal’s on the f***ing slow burn and he hasn’t said a word. 

‘He’d gone out down the street for a little bit and he’d come back home and he usually parks on the street — we had a house in Hawthorn — and there were two vans parked out the front, a Channel 9 van and a Channel 10 van. 

‘And they’d been waiting there for a couple days to try and get Mal and door-stop him. 

‘Mal’s said, ‘I’m too smart for them, I’m going to go up around the block’. My mother wasn’t there at the time so he knew the car park at the back garage was free. 

‘So he goes up the alley way, rolls up the garage door, drives in and to Mal’s knowledge, he’s got in,’ laughed Brown.

But he did not. 

An eagle-eyed reporter had spotted Mal trying to escape the media, and took off down the alley – arriving in the nick of time to get a comment that has since gone down in history/ho.

‘She’s (reporter Sharnelle Vella) seen Mal go up the alleyway so she’s told the cameraman to come with me and they sort of snuck up the alley. And as Mal’s trying to bring the roller door down she comes in (with) cameras rolling and microphone.

‘And Mal gets out the car and bang. There she is. There’s the camera. He’s been caught. He’s been door-stopped. And she says ‘have you spoken to your son at all’?

‘And Mal, just off the top of his head without breaking stride, delivers down the barrel: ‘No I haven’t and can you go and get f***ed and get out of my life and out of my property and ring up and make a time like every other c*** does that’s got any manners’. 

‘And she goes, ‘thank you’!,’ said Brown. 

Campbell Brown, pictured with wife Jess, said his father’s iconic reaction was so iconic he was impressed – despite asking him to make no comment

Brown, pictured attending close friend Shane Warne’s funeral last year, had a colourful career – just like his dear mate

Mal Brown has often courted controversy, not least of which for calling Indigenous people ‘cannibals’, before denying he was racist. 

In addition to a fair bit of colourful on-field thuggery during his storied 202-match career, he also delivered some of the all-time great sprays as a coach. 

Brown said he was so impressed by his father’s now-viral reaction, that they will play it at his funeral.

‘I don’t even know how you get c*** and manners in the same sentence so eloquently, but he did it,’ he said.

‘The old man’s ringing. I pick up. ‘Hello’? And the old man says, ‘Son, I’ve made a comment’.

‘And that was it. And so that ran. And now everyone says that’s the greatest f***ing response I’ve ever heard. It’s become like a meme. It’s gone viral. He can’t believe it. He’s got like a million hits on YouTube. He wouldn’t even know what YouTube is,’ said Brown.

The infamous brawl may have ended his footy career, but Brown, who is now heavily involved in the footy, racing and betting industry, will never forget it. 

Campbell Brown’s colourful career 

2002 – Makes AFL debut for Hawthorn after being drafted at pick 32

2004 – Suspended for four games and fined $5200 for punching Bombers star Jason Winderlich as he went off the field injured, something that was described by Matthew Lloyd as the ‘most disgusting thing’ he’d ever seen on a footy field

2007 – Fined $15,000 for giving misleading evidence to AFL Tribunal over incident with Chris Judd

2008 – Two-game ban for charging Carlton’s Matthew Kreuzer in the preseason cup. Wins premiership for the Hawks 

2009 – Calls bitter rival Lloyd a ‘sniper’ and vows retribution for his hit on teammate Brad Sewell.

2010 – Joins the Gold Coast Suns ahead of their first year in the league.

2011 – Suspended for four matches after elbowing Western Bulldog Callan Ward in the face and given a high bump on Barry Hall.

Campbell Brown played 159 games for the Hawks, including the 2008 premiership

2011 – Cut from the Suns leadership group after the 28-year-old led 19-year-old teammates Mav Weller, Joel Wilkinson and Jacob Gillbee into a bar brawl while at a Full Moon party in Thailand 

2012 – Suspended an astonishing six weeks for a sickening high bump on young Crow Aiden Riley

2013 – Four-game ban for rough conduct sees him miss the opening round for the third time in the last four years due to suspension

2013 – Sacked after breaking then-teammate Steven May’s jaw after a bar fight in Los Angeles